Alan Rabson, whose research career at the National Cancer Institute lasted six decades and culminated with his role as deputy director for 20 years, died on July 4. He was 92.
“We have lost a giant,” says Norman Sharpless, the director of the NCI, in a statement.
Born and raised in New York City, Rabson obtained a medical degree from the State University of New York. He started his career at the NCI in 1955 after a failed attempt at acquiring an internship at the organization in 1947 and a lack of opportunities in the early 1950s.. According to the NCI’s oral history project, Rabson spent his first year at the NCI as a resident in the pathology department with only a desk and a microscope for his laboratory. In the following year, he was given a fully functioning lab and a technician.
Rabson studied tumor-causing viruses, working extensively as ...
